CCS: Re united
by Lucky Jinxe
Summary: Sakura and Shaoran are 16 years old. They are happy together as a couple and have faced several new ordeals, making new friends in the process. Re-united with their friends all seems to be well; but when Shaoran goes missing the illusion is shattered.
1. Prologue

**Note:** This is set after Shakugan no Shana: Approaching War (which is the 'end' of the Himura and Elena story); and I've decided to have CardCaptor Sakura: Trouble in High School as an interlude, so that I can continue to use Julius Ragnar as a character. You needn't read either, as anything that refers to these stories will be explained in this one. In any case, enjoy!

**P**rologue

"Sakura-chan! Are you busy after school?" Chiharu asked the copper haired girl who was standing up from her seat and bringing her bag's strap over her head.

"I don't have any plans. Why?" The girl responded, dropping the strap down onto one shoulder so that it fell diagonally across her chest. Chiharu waved a fistful of tickets at her.

"Yamazaki-kun got some tickets for the newest film in the cinema. Rika and Naoko are coming and we have a couple spare." Sakura hesitated, glancing over at Shaoran who was fixing the clasps of the bag closed. Chiharu followed her gaze and made a noise as if she had forgotten something.

"There's a ticket for Li-kun too." She said and Sakura noticed that she was holding two tickets out to her. Sakura took the tickets and beamed.

"Sure! Are we going now?"

"Yup! We're meeting by the front gate so I'll see you there!" Chiharu waved and ran out the door. Sakura wandered over to Shaoran and held the tickets out to him.

"Chiharu-chan and Yamazaki-kun had a spare pair of tickets." She explained and Shaoran took one to glance at the film title.

"Ah, I was hoping we could go see this one. It had good reviews. So, are we going then?" He looked up from the ticket at her and Sakura still felt her heart jump even after all this time. Unbeknown to her it was the just the same for Shaoran.

"I told Chiharu-chan we would. She said they'll meet us by the gate." Shaoran heaved his back onto his shoulder and they walked towards the door together. As Shaoran's right arm moved forwards the sleeve pulled back a little to reveal the end of a still healing scar. Sakura saw it and memories came flowing back to her, shocking her and paralysing her.

"Sakura?" Shaoran had stopped and turned towards her, his face wore a concerned expression. He followed the girl's gaze and pulled his sleeve back. "It's alright, it's all healed up. It's only a scar." He assured her but she didn't respond so he moved closer to her.

"That battle was three days ago, Sakura. You don't need to think about it anymore." He soothed quietly, taking her hand and squeezing it lightly. The girl seemed to wake from her stupor and rested her head on his chest.

"I don't want to remember it but I keep seeing it all happen again." She spoke tearfully and Shaoran wrapped his arms around her, bringing him closer to her. The classroom had emptied long before and they were alone.

"Don't worry; you won't ever have to see war again. It's over, we won. Remember?" Shaoran murmured into her ear. They disentangled and Sakura nodded, rubbing the tears from her eyes. Shaoran offered her his handkerchief and she cleared away the tears that had already rolled down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Shaoran. I'm alright now." She forced a weak smile and Shaoran smiled back comfortingly.

"Come on, they're waiting for us."

* * *

Hours later the couple were walking home along the paved pathway through the park. They crossed the bridge and continued on, stopping by the playground. Many memories were held here for them. When they had been capturing the Clow Cards, when Sakura had had to deal with the various problems Eriol created for them so that she could change the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards, when Sakura had unloaded her sorrow upon Shaoran before their final fight with Eriol.

And then the events two years later. Their battle with Fate alongside Elena Mithran and Himura Imanda; and then after they had gone their battle alongside Julius Ragnar who had returned to England for a few months.

Sakura rummaged in her bag and looked at the Sakura Cards she had brought out. Shortly after Elena and Himura had left the Cards had returned to their previous state and Shaoran had been unable to use them as he had during their battle with Fate.

"Daidouji will be back soon, you know." Shaoran murmured and Sakura looked up from the Cards, a little startled.

"Yeah. She sent me an e-mail from England. She said she and Ragnar-san would be coming back in two weeks' time." Sakura put the cards back in her bag and as they were about to continue on she spotted a huddled figure lying on the ground at the far end of the playground.

She ran at the low metal barrier and vaulted easily over it, not stopping as she quickly covered the ground between the path and the woods surrounding the playground. She knelt down by the body, for that's what the shape was, a body of a boy their age. She rolled him onto his back and recognised him instantly.

"Shaoran, come here!" The boy had only been seconds behind and knelt down beside her. He too found the boy's face familiar.

"What's he doing here?" Shaoran demanded; but Sakura could supply no answer. The boy's shirt was cut open from the right shoulder almost down to the left hip. In the rip a livid pink scar was visible, looking as if it had been cauterised immediately after an injury had been made; and it looked fresh. The immediate clothing around the scar was stained red and blood was splashed on the boy's chest and was drying on his chin, having dribbled down off his mouth.

"I don't know; but look, he's hurt! We need to get him to a hospital." Sakura pointed to the scar and Shaoran leaned forwards to peer at it. At that moment the boy's eyes flickered open and he gazed up at them with glazed eyes.

"I-I'm…. al….ive?" He croaked with the voice of someone who had barely escaped death by drowning.

"What happened, Himura-san?" Sakura asked but the boy's head had already lolled back as he fell unconscious.

"I'll call an ambulance." Shaoran said and reached into his blazer, pulling out a mobile phone and dialling the emergency number. As he spoke Sakura looked down into their friend's face.

He and Elena had come to them from another world to protect them from something far more powerful than them; and they had in return fought with the couple's allies against a tremendously powerful enemy. The memories of real battle stilled haunted Sakura and Shaoran still bore the scars on his arm and back but they had won in the end.

"Ambulance is on its way." Shaoran said as he hung up the call and slid the phone back into his blazer. "But what happened?"

"Maybe he can tell us when he gets better; but I wonder where Elena-chan is if he's here?"

* * *

Elena Mithran sat at her desk and stared aghast at the huge pile of paperwork that had been laid out before her. Her commander, Sir Bryan, was patting the top of the pile while sipping from a mug of coffee. He looked exhausted, even his uniform looked like it was tired, pristine and yet somehow looking in need of a clean.

"We won the war and now they want us to do all their paperwork too?" Elena demanded, gesturing at the huge pile. Sir Bryan pointed at his desk which was overflowing with folders and great pillars of paper. The floor space surrounding it was also covered.

"You've got it easy, Elena." He spoke enviously with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Why do we have all the paperwork to do though? Surely the governments can do it themselves?" Elena insisted but Sir Bryan just shook his head in resignation.

"They're too busy sorting out the paperwork to bestow all kinds of honours upon us; and upon Himura." The last part was spoken quietly and an immediate hush spread across the room. The hustle and bustle of the offices continued but the place had become silent in respect of the great hero, who had not been found after taking a fatal wound in the final battle against their singularly most powerful enemy.

"Regarding that-" Elena started but Bryan patted the paperwork again and cut in before she could finish.

"You do your paperwork before you go looking for him." Bryan said and plodded towards his own desk, collapsing in the seat. "Incidentally, most of this stuff isn't additional work. Himura did most of this himself." Elena eyed the piles of paper.

"So you made him your secretary, huh?" She asked and Bryan laughed sadly.

"No, he chose to do it. That's why everything is in such a mess now. With him gone, half of the force behind the Guardians has disappeared."

"You're the commander, Bryan." Elena reminded him and the boy laughed again.

"I may be; but there's no doubt about who really ran things around here." Bryan turned to look straight at her. "I've done some thinking, since we last saw him. I had this odd feeling and I went over the official report. It was pretty sketchy, everyone was too shocked about what happened to investigate with a clear state of mind; but there was a trans-planar energy spike just before he disappeared." Elena's face brightened with hope.

"So he did teleport!" She exclaimed. Bryan nodded; but he lacked her jubilant response.

"The question is, why did he go to another world in that state? His wound was fatal so he must have done it for a reason."

"I'll ask him why when I find him." Elena stood up but Bryan waved her down.

"I have a team looking into it now. They're tracking the path of the teleport but it'll take some time. For now, you can help us with all this he left for us."


	2. Chapter 1

**Note:** To begin with things may be a little slow; but it'll pick up once good ol' Himura can get up and walk about again.

**C**hapter 1

Himura groaned and rolled his head from side to side as he woke into painful consciousness. He imagined this was what someone who had a severe hangover felt like. Having never drunk enough for a normal person to be truly drunk and having been immune to all drugs and other toxins he had never felt the effects of a hangover before.

He slowly opened his eyes and was met with the blurred sight of blue with a rectangle of white at the bottom centre of his vision. As his vision cleared his addled brain sluggishly understood that the blue walls were curtains and the white were sheets of a kind. Judging by the fact that he appeared to be higher than the bottom of the curtains he concluded that he was in an elevated position; and the sheets pointed to him being in a bed.

As he twisted he head to expand his understand of his situation by examining the rest of his surroundings he discovered a machine to his right which seemed to have lights flashing on and off constantly. Wires trailed from it to somewhere below his field of vision, he would look down once he had finished his cursory examination to the left.

The machine appeared to be making a rhythmic bleeping sound, the blip sounded and then there was silence before another blip sounded. Although the gaps in between were slightly irregular they were fairly similar so Himura concluded that it was some kind of timer clocking over.

Looking to his left now, after much strain to roll his head to the other side, he found a long pole emerging from below the edge of the white sheet and rising above him. He rolled his eyes back, for this was easier than moving his head to look down, to discover where this pole went. His searching eyes found a bag of some kind hung on a hook stretching out from the pole and another wire was connecting to this bag and this too fell below his field of vision.

Now that he had seen his surrounding environment to the left and right; and partially above him, he proceeded onto looking down. This was far more difficult as he had to move another part of him which felt disembodied from his head. At last he levered himself into a position where he could see further down. Somewhere in his head he noted that the rhythmic beating from the machine to his left had increased in rapidity.

He spotted the two tubes, or wires, and they seemed to go into his arms. He couldn't feel them but perhaps that was what the tubes were doing? He leaned back again; suddenly feeling exhausted from this little effort. Seconds after he began to relax and digest this new information the curtain was yanked back and a lady in blue scrubs appeared.

Behind here were a man and another lady, similarly dressed. They all looked concerned and piled into this little world Himura now inhabited. The first arrival checked the heart monitor, for that was what the bleeping machine was, while the man examined the bag hanging from the pole, an IV drip.

The remaining lady moved forwards and offered Himura a smile. To him it seemed professional. Not a forced smile; but one that came easily and looked tired, as if it were in use too often.

"You're awake." She stated, leaning close to check the state of his eyes to see if he were conscious still. She pulled back, nodding to herself. "Do you think you can talk?" She asked and Himura's slow brain processed these sounds. He felt as if he were gaining knowledge and enlightenment at a terrific pace. He had worked out what his surrounding were, the names coming to him now; and he was able to understand this person's words.

He carefully planned his reply, seeking the words out and assembling them together in a string so that they'd be intelligible as he ran through the sounds required to communicate his meaning.

"A little." He finally said, struggling to move his tongue and jaw to say the words. The lady nodded her head in a way that was meant to be encouraging. When Himura didn't go on she spoke again.

"Do you remember what happened?" She asked and Himura thought about that one. Finally he replied.

"Not really." It was the truth, his memory was fuzzy, and he could barely remember anything. It had taken him several minutes to remember what a heart monitor and an IV drip were!

"What about your name? Do you remember that?" The lady persisted. Himura at least could remember that.

"Himura Imanda." His responses were very limited in an attempt to avoid unnecessary strain. The lady wrote it down in a pad she procured from a pocket and nodded to the two other nurses who left.

"You need to get some more rest. If you need anything just press those buttons on that box there." The nurse was pointing a white box resting in Himura's lap which had several buttons on it. There was a red one which Himura presumed was the one the lady was referring to. She too left and Himura was left once again alone. He decided to take the nurse's advice and closed his eyes and found he fell asleep rather easily.

* * *

"Sakura." The girl looked up at the sound of her name as she fiddled with the clasps on her bags. Shaoran was waiting for her, his solemn gaze reminding her of the decision they had made earlier to see if Himura had recovered. She quickly finished her battle with the metal clasps and slung the bag over her shoulder before joining Shaoran by the door.

"When do the visiting times end again?" She asked and Shaoran glanced at his watch.

"In about thirty minutes." He answered after doing some quick calculations in his head.

"It takes nearly that much time to get there though!" Sakura protested, as if this rule were made to be unjust to them.

"We should hurry." Shaoran agreed and took her hand. They ran most of the way there, stopping when the hospital came in sight to catch their breath. Shaoran glanced at his watch as he slowed his breathing to a steady rate. "Ten minutes to spare." He told her. Sakura was bending over, hands on knees as she recovered from the run.

"I've never been so out of breath after a run." She gasped and Shaoran agreed.

"We must still be tired." He offered the reasoning and she accepted it without saying anything, not wanting to dwell on the subject. They entered the hospital and gave their names at the desk. The man at the desk suggested they take a seat while he called one of the nurses down.

Five minutes later a lady appeared in blue scrubs. She spoke to the man who gestured at the couple who stood up as they realised this was their escort. The lady walked over to them and motioned for them to follow her.

"You're just in time, visiting hours were about to close. You can stay for a little while afterwards, otherwise it's just a waste of time. He only woke up this morning and seemed a little out of it; but he's recovered a great deal and seems to at least have his wits about him now." She informed them as they entered a lift to the upper floors.

"Did he give you his name?" Shaoran asked. When the ambulance had arrived the two hadn't given his name as at the time they weren't sure it was him. The nurse pulled out a small notepad from one of her pockets and thumbed through the pages which had notes scrawled on them.

"Let's see. Ah yes, he said his name was 'Himura Imanda'. Do you recognise that name?"

"We thought so but we weren't sure." Shaoran answered. Sakura was quiet; all she could think of was seeing that wound and the blood covering the boy when she had found him.

"Our records show he's a British citizen; but there was an error in the records." The nurse said, opening a folder she had brought with her. The name 'Imanda, Himura' was scrawled across a white sticky label attached to it. She pulled out a sheet and held it towards Shaoran who took it.

"What's this?" He asked, flipping the cover page over to look at the page underneath. It was written in English so neither he nor Sakura could read it.

"It's his autopsy report." The nurse answered, which stopped the couple in their tracks. "We searched up his next of kin; but it seems there are none. His entire family was killed in their mansion in England. According to the files even his girlfriend, Elena Mithran, was killed too. In fact a lot of people their age seem to have been killed there but the murderer was never found."

A chill ran down Sakura's spine. Someone had supposedly killed Elena and Himura; but the couple she knew were from another world which meant they had existed in her world; but someone had killed them both. There was no way it was coincidence.

"There must have been a mix up." The nurse said into the stunned silence; but she received no reply. The lift doors opened and the nurse led the couple out and down a corridor lined with generic looking hospital equipment. Eventually the nurse stopped by a pair of double doors.

"We moved him into a separate room to speed his recovery. His injuries were quite severe but for some reason they were cauterised prior to his arrival so there was little we needed to do; but he seems to have no energy, his body is lacking nutrients so we've been feeding him especially concentrated foods and encouraging him to rest."

She pushed the right door open for the couple who walked in.

"I need to attend to other patients so I'll leave you to it. I'll come and check on you later." With that the nurse disappeared down the corridor, the door swinging shut behind her.

"Ah, it seems as though my memory wasn't playing tricks on me then." A familiar voice called the couple to look into the room. Himura was sitting in bed with pillows piled behind him so that he could sit up. His smile was broad and welcoming.

"Himura-san!" Sakura exclaimed, relieved to see the boy in apparent good health.

"I'm glad to see you two are both well. I was always worried you might have been hurt badly." The two sat in seats set by the side of the bed.

"How were you hurt so badly?" Shaoran demanded in his usual, blunt manner. Himura's expression saddened a little as his hand reached to touch his chest.

"I was fighting against the leader of the enemy. I had to make an opening and the only way to do that was to create an opening in my own guard." Sakura blinked, uncomprehending.

"You let yourself be hurt like that?" Shaoran asked in disbelief.

"That's right. I defeated their leader; but I was nearly killed in doing so, although I'm sure you worked that one out." The boy flashed them a rueful smile.

"What about Elena-chan?" Sakura asked, remembering her earlier confusion at the girl's absence.

"I suspect she's probably back on our home world mourning, or more likely she's searching trying to find me. I'm probably counted as dead anyway." Himura let out a lengthy sigh. "After I defeated their leader I lost control of powers and lost consciousness. My theory is my subconsciousness controlled my powers to heal my wound. Why I appeared here I don't know, I suppose my powers went rampant and so teleported me."

"So it's all over then? After we finished fighting we heard nothing about whether your leader had won or not." Shaoran was more stating rather than asking; but Himura answered him anyway.

"Yes, it's all over. I suppose my wish to be normal is a little too real now, though." Himura was staring at his hand.

"What do you mean? You'll go home and be a hero won't you?" Sakura asked, leaning forwards a little. Himura's eyes didn't leave his hand but his eyes looked wet, his only show of weakness they had ever seen.

"Only someone with some kind of extra spiritual energy can cross between worlds." Shaoran understood his words and his eyes widened a little in surprise; and in pity as well; but Sakura was once again clueless.

"So you'll go home when you're well again?" She asked, at last Himura tore his gaze away from his hand and looked at her.

"I can't cross between worlds anymore, I've lost my power."


	3. Chapter 2

**C**hapter 2

Elena slipped through the half open bulkhead doors, her impatience getting the better of her. In the room she entered the walls appeared to be made up of banks of monitors and various complex pieces of equipment. Given an hour Elena could probably have named each one and explain its use but at that moment she really did not have the time.

"Ah, Elena there you are." A pretty brunette holding a clipboard with a pair of glasses perched on her nose was motioning for the blonde girl to join her.

"You've found him?" Elena demanded, unable to conform to formality at that time; but the other girl took no offence. Everyone in the Guardians knew of how Elena and Himura were connected; and besides that a great deal of Guardians had fallen into depression at the loss of one of their most beloved leaders, they would do anything to find him.

"We haven't found him; but we've found where he went." The girl answered as she led Elena through a more standard door to the bulkhead which was the entrance to the area; and into a large office. As with all the desks in the building there was little visible area on top of the desk, concealed by the mountains of paper; but at least the amount had dwindled a little in the past week.

"Surely it's easy to trace his path if you know where it starts on that world?" Elena inquired. She knew the answer; of course, she had worked several times on surveillance missions and understood the easiness of the procedure to trace a being of significant power.

"That's just the thing, it should be. Here, take a look for yourself, I know you're not new to this technology." The girl waved her hand to a screen that took up the entire back wall of the large office which was designed to double as a living space when necessary. The room lit up as the black screen burst into life and showed an enhanced satellite image. A solid blue dot was the centre of the screen, where the focus was.

"There are no residual traces leading away from the area." Elena instantly noticed with a frown. The girl nodded and pointed to the blue dot.

"As far as we can tell, this is where the path stops. There were no further teleports from this location, no signs of any kind of power used although there are signs that two people of some kind of native power were here. We recorded the power composition and should have a result from the database soon; but here." The girl nodded to the screen and it zoomed in, down to an extremely close up view of the ground. Only a square foot of earth now filled the screen.

"Blood stains. You've checked the DNA?" Elena demanded instantly and the girl glanced at the screen in reply, which zoomed in even further until an individual cell was visible. It was in the middle of mitosis by the looks of things, the chromosomes of the nucleus uncoiling.

"Our best guess is this is a cell from a rib, scraped off when whatever wound the blood came from was dealt. We scanned the DNA through and it matched Commander Imanda's." The sides of the screen pinched in so that two free spaces were left on either side. Two images of paper reports pulled into view, one on each side. The left side showed scan results, presumably those taken from the image. The right side showed a page of Himura's more in depth medical records, obligatory for Guardians. The complex trail of DNA combinations were at the very least an extremely close, if not definite, match.

Elena felt a surge of excitement; they knew where Himura had been. Of course, he had plainly been moved somehow without allowing any of his power to leak out which would have been a very difficult process; but this was at least progress in their search, they were on the trail.

At that moment the trail was turned into a paved road as a polite knock on the door announced the arrival of one of the team responsible for tracking Himura. The boy who had knocked leaned in and held out a sheaf of papers to the brunette girl before excusing himself.

"Here we are, the results from cross-referencing the database with the recording we took earlier. Kinomoto, Sakura and Li, Shaoran." The brunette looked up to find she was alone in the room.

* * *

It was lunchtime at Tomoeda High School and Sakura was sitting with her old school friends: Chiharu, Rika and Naoko. Tomoyo was still on holiday but would be returning that week; and Shaoran was busy with football practice. Sakura had promised to watch ten minutes after lunch started when she had eaten her lunch.

"Sakura-chan, you don't look so cheerful." Chiharu commented, something she had grown used to saying in recent years. It was Chiharu who was the spokesperson for the three girls when they felt something was upsetting Sakura; and once again the heroine was surprised by their astuteness.

"Y-yeah." She mumbled back the non-committal reply and shovelled some rice into her mouth. The three girls looked at each other and nodded, some kind of non verbal message passing between them.

"You and Li-kun have been leaving in a rush everyday after school." Naoko stated and Sakura nodded, again an admittance but not giving anything extra away.

"I heard Imanda-san who was here a few weeks ago was found injured in the park. Have you been visiting him?" Rika was the one who had spoken now, delivering the final blow but her soft and mature manner weakening it. Sakura nodded again, defeated.

"The news said he was still in bad condition; but you've been seeing him. Is he still hurt?" Chiharu asked, concerned not only for Sakura's happiness but also for a former classmate's.

"'He' is alright now." Sakura's head whipped around as the now familiar voice answered in her place. Himura was walking up from the path over the grass towards where they sat under the foliage of several trees. He was dressed in casual clothes, jeans and a v-neck aertex. The inflamed skin on his chest could just be seen as his shirt moved a little as he walked and the girls caught the brief flash of mutilated body.

"Imanda-san!" Rika had stood up with a horrified look on her face. These girls, like most girls should, lived a fairly sheltered life, away from the violence of some parts of the world and had never seen any kind of severe wound and so were shocked by this new experience. However, Himura waved her down.

"Its fine, all healed up now. I just came in to take up my place at school again, seems I'll be around for a while." The boy sat down, crossing his legs into a meditation pose.

"How were you hurt like that?" Naoko asked, as always enthralled by mysteries. Sakura stiffened at this, there was no way Himura could explain to them everything, besides it would reveal her secret as well so she opened her mouth to speak but her cut in with a smooth lie.

"Old enemies I'm afraid. I suspect there will be a great deal of media surrounding myself before long. It's not very often someone thought to be dead returns in such a spectacular manner on the other side of the globe."

"What about Elena-chan, is she here with you?" Chiharu asked and something resembling sadness flashed across Himura's face before he composed himself again.

"Not at the moment, we lost contact just before this happened." Here Himura gestured to his chest. "I would imagine she'll find me before long though." He said with a smile, giving off a confidence which Sakura felt was genuine.

"Ah, Sakura-chan, it's ten past." Rika said suddenly, once again the mature girl keeping tracking of things. Sakura glanced at her own watch and made her almost trade mark sound of surprise.

"Hoe!" (It sounds more along the lines of H-weeeee-eh!) "I need to go, I'll see you later!" Sakura hurriedly packed her lunch away, stuffed it into her bag and ran off towards the football pitch. The three girls now turned to Himura who was watching the girl run off with a look something like that of brotherly fondness.

"Sakura-chan's been visiting you in hospital, hasn't she?" Chiharu finally asked and Himura turned back to them. He nodded.

"Yes, she and Shaoran-san have been visiting me every day. They were in fact the ones that found me in the first place." Himura touched his chest and closed his eyes, internal pain showing on his face. "Such a kind girl shouldn't have to see someone in that state. I'm worried it might change her and she'll lose too much of her innocence to return to her normal self."

"Sakura-chan will be fine, she always pulls through in the end." Himura looked up to see Rika was smiling confidently.

"Yes, you're right."

* * *

"Commander Elena, you can't just order the creation of a portal under the current circumstances with no prior warning!" The head of the department protested; but Elena was in no mood to talk regulations with the boy at such a time.

"I need a portal; and I need it now." Elena repeated firmly. The boy looked exasperated, looking to his colleagues for support. Even though Elena was of a far higher rank than any of them she was still not authorised to make such an order without paperwork done in advance. The thought of dealing with more reports on top of their workload dumped upon them by the various governments of the world was appalling.

"I can't authorise that, Commander Elena. You need to submit the paperwork beforehand unless it's an emergency or you have Sir Bryan's authorisation." The head was stubborn and stood his ground, refusing to bunch an inch. His fellow workers looked hopeful, perhaps they wouldn't be receiving any more burden to their workload.

"She has it, what's more I'm accompanying her." The strong voice made all the people in the room stand to attention and look to where Bryan had entered through the bulkhead doors with a retinue of casually dressed Guardians.

"Sir, this is most irregular though." The head made one last feeble attempt but Bryan would have none of it.

"Have it ready in the next ten minutes." He ordered and the head nodded his head glumly, glancing around the room with apologetic eyes and a shrug saying: What could I do?. Bryan turned to Elena and waved a hand at her uniform. "You'll need to be in less conspicuous clothing. We want to attract as little attention as possible, especially if this lead turns out to be a false one. There should be the emergency equipment in your room waiting for you." 'Emergency equipment' translated to a SIG Sauer P226, customised for a 20 round chamber rather than 15 round chamber, the favoured small fire arm of SAS operatives.

"I'll be quick."

* * *

Sakura cheered as Shaoran ploughed the football past the goalie and into the back of the football net. He high-fived a fellow striker and grinned at Sakura, giving her a small wave, his worries forgotten in the adrenaline pumped training. Sakura felt relaxed, watching her only ever real love lose himself in the joy of sport.

Shaoran turned around to run to the centre of the pitch with his team as they yelled out compliments and appreciation to each other. Sakura watched as he crouched slightly, tensing as the opposing team prepared to kick off again. The ball was passed and he sprinted forwards with the other strikers, ahead of them and then he had stolen the ball and was dribbling it down the field, slipping past two mid fields and then passing it right to a team mate to avoid an approaching defender. The other striker drew the two defenders to him before flipping the ball neatly over their heads to in front of Shaoran where it bounced once before he kicked it so that he flew into the top right corner of goal again.

"He's not bad." A voice nearby said; but Sakura paid no attention to it, there were bound to be plenty of spectators.

"You could say that." Another voice agreed; but Sakura was jolted by this one for it was familiar. She jumped to her feet and looked up to the top of the bank where a crowd of casually clothed boys and girls stood, arrayed behind two prominent figures. One was a boy who looked reminiscent of Himura; but with brown hair and a less strongly boned face, the other was a blonde girl whom she remembered very well.

"Elena-chan!"

* * *

Himura was sitting upon one of the miniature penguins, staring up at the sky when he noticed a crowd of people were approaching, walking up the path. He recognised four gaits and the others he could tell walked with both a sense of purpose and a grace only natural fighters possessed. He stood up and turned to meet the group, seeing them for the first time.

"It took you some time to find me." He said with a grin. Elena lost all discipline and ran forwards to leap into Himura's embrace, wrapping her arms over his shoulders. She cried into his chest, the boy disguised his wince at the pain flaring from his wound and instead rocked the girl gently. Eventually she disentangled herself and made herself proper and in that time Himura had greeted Bryan with a fierce hug and his retinue with firm hand shakes.

"Time to go home, Himura. Everyone's waiting for you." Bryan said with an easy; but tired smile. Himura closed his eyes before shaking his head with a deep sigh.

"I can't go back, Bryan. My powers are gone." The crowd froze, uncomprehending before they blurted out questions which Himura raised a hand to shake away.

"What do you plan on doing then, Himura?" Bryan asked, as usual practical.

"I'll stay here, I think. It seems that on this world my entire family and even myself were killed. I strongly suspect they were eliminated to prevent another me awakening and threatening our old friends. I'll make up a story about how I was taken elsewhere but escape with this injury." Himura pointed to the fleshy wound underneath his shirt.

"I'm staying then." Elena said firmly. Bryan moved to protest but she cut in. "I have no blood relatives back home, Bryan. Both Himie's and mine were killed during the war and if Himie can't return home I'll stay here with him." Her face was set; she would not budge from the decision. Bryan looked from one to the other before sighing.

"Okay. I'll send someone to keep you updated now and then; and to make sure you're alright. I'll inform Her Majesty of your situation, I'm sure she'll understand. We'll work something out. I probably won't see you again for quite some time, so for now I'll bid you farewell. I hope our next meeting isn't too far off, once this is truly over we can talk like old veterans." Bryan shook hands with Himura and kissed Elena on the cheek before leading his retinue away through a shining blue portal which closed behind them.

Sakura and Shaoran, who had been standing back from the party, walked forwards.

"You'll stay here?" Sakura asked, her face was beaming. Shaoran too looked happy, although whether it was from their staying or Sakura's renewed happiness, it was hard to tell.

"It does seem like it." Himura replied, glancing at Elena who smiled, her eyes still wet.

"Where will you stay? Surely you don't have anywhere to live?" Shaoran asked but Himura gave a brief smile.

"I did some research on myself. Even in this world I was rather highly regarded, as was my family. It seems we had homes in almost every major country in the world and owned a massive company so that won't be a problem."

"So we can go to school together?" Sakura asked. A perfectly normal question, under most circumstances. Himura chuckled.

"Yes, we can go to school together. The first time I'll have been to school properly in nearly seven years."


	4. Chapter 3

**C**hapter 3

"Today we have the return of two students returning from overseas… Imanda Himura and Mithran Elena. For those of you who weren't in this class when they were here last they come from England but are currently living here in Japan. Please come in."

Himura and Elena entered the classroom, both wearing the school uniform (male and female uniforms respectively, of course) and carrying the suitcase like satchels almost all students used for school. They bowed at the front in unison.

"My name is Imanda Himura, I hope we get on."

"I'm Mithran Elena, nice to see you all again."

The two spoke as if on queue and the class stared in wonder at the visions of almost plastic perfection in front of then. Not a single one of Himura's blonde locks were out of place, his blue eyes shone soft and kind while looking faintly amused at everything around him. His smile was ready and charming, his strong features giving off an aura of ability and dependability and his well toned and athletically muscled body was both attractive and reassuring.

Elena's long, blonde hair shimmered with every movement, her eyes too radiated warmth and her straight boned features made her look extremely pretty without being overly delicate. She was modestly thin with a body of perfect proportions, not extreme but never lacking, the envy of girls and the lustful attention of boys.

The class applauded, of course once the traditional knock out the couple had produced wore off. The two took spare seats, Elena amongst Sakura's three friends: Chiharu, Naoko and Rika with a smiled greeting; and Himura taking a seat near the back window where he greeted Yamazaki with a grin and some small comment.

* * *

"Sir, you must see this report, its urgent!"

The black winged, stubbily horned demon turned to take the animal skin proffered to him and read the message scrawled upon it, gnashing his teeth in frustration as he read down it.

"You orders, sir?" The smaller demon asked his master, who glared up from the animal skin.

"Go, kill him, now."

* * *

A cold chill crept up Himura's spine and he shook his head to clear it. Elena, who was eating her lunch beside him, glanced up.

"Is something wrong, Himie?" She asked. Himura looked up at the sky as if he could divine some sort of message from the blank blueness.

"No, just a random instinct."

"Listen, Himie, Bryan says he can have a group of our techies stabilise a portal enough for a normal human to pass through." She looked at him; but her expression mirrored his thoughts.

"I'd rather not run from my new home." He said with a tired smile and waved his hands around them. "This is a world free of the scale of danger and strife ours suffered; and I want to see that continued. If we went home we'd be heroes forever; but you and I just want to be normal. We don't want to be idolised, forever remembered, we just want to live our lives and we can only do that here."

Elena shuffled over and laid her head on his shoulder.

"You always were one for making grand speeches." She murmured happily.

* * *

Sakura ran down to the pitch to wait for Shaoran as he and his team congratulated each other and their opponents as well with polite hand shakes or less formal hi fives. Shirts were swapped in the traditional fashion and the boys joked and laughed, boasting off their achievements as they wandered off the field. Other girls were lining up next to Sakura, eagerly awaiting the arrival of their beloved.

Shaoran was searching the faces of the girls when he saw Sakura and a grin spread across his face when he saw her proud glee at his performance. The girls broke as one and ran onto the pitch to throw their arms around their boyfriends.

Sakura snuggled into Shaoran's embrace and they swayed there, content.

"I'm glad you came to watch me." Shaoran murmured into her hair. Perhaps a month or so before he would have felt awkward at such comments but after all their recent adventures together this small admission was perfectly normal for him, even releasing; as if he had to pour out his feelings at every chance he was given.

"You were great." Sakura murmured back and eventually the two broke apart to walk hand in hand to the top of the bank. The boys said their goodbyes and made their way in a large crowd towards the showers and changing rooms. The girls waved their goodbyes and Sakura stood on tip toe to give Shaoran a light kiss on the cheek, causing them both to redden a little before they broke apart and he headed after his team mates and Sakura waved to his back.

"Still at it I see." Sakura jumped as the voice spoke from right next to her.

"Hoe!" She screamed in surprise and leapt to the side instinctively. The boy who had spoken didn't seem to notice her reaction. If he did, he didn't react, he didn't even so much as budge. He was about Shaoran's height with blonde hair and kind blue eyes. His face spoke of calm wisdom beyond his years; but his quiet smile showed his youth.

"Julius-san!" Sakura exclaimed as she recognised him and calmed herself. The blonde boy turned his head to smile at her and Sakura felt like she was the only person in his world at that moment. Julius Ragnar had that natural ability, to make a person feel like he was paying attention to them and only to them.

"Good afternoon, Sakura-chan." He greeted her properly and showed his teeth in a genuinely pleased grin. Sakura hugged him and looked around.

"Is Tomoyo-chan not here?" She asked and Julius shrugged his shoulders.

"I believe Tomoyo went to see the music teacher to catch up on choir business, I'm sure she'll find you as soon as that's done." He assured her and then reached into a pocket to rummage about. "I think I brought it with me, perhaps Tomoyo has it…." For all Julius' apparent collectedness he was sometimes rather forgetful. At last he found what he was looking for and revealed a small gift wrapped square shape.

"Here, a souvenir from my homeland." He handed the gift to Sakura who stared at it before carefully untying the ribbon and slowly unfolding the layered paper to reveal a hard leather coated box. She undid the clasp and lifted the small lid; gasping when she saw the contents.

The necklace inside was made of thin golden wires interwoven in complex patterns to form a slightly thicker chord of golden with patterns swirling at intervals and a modestly sized pink gem shined in a golden setting at the end of the chain. Sakura was enchanted and amazed by the enormity of the gift.

"Can you really give me something so expensive?" She asked worriedly, in wonder at the gift but her natural selflessness kicking in at last. Julius nodded firmly, closing her hand over the box to signify he wouldn't withdraw the gift.

"England's goldsmiths are some of the best in the world. I couldn't bear the thought of giving you a gift short of the best, Sakura-chan. As someone very dear to both myself and Tomoyo no gift I could give could be too expensive." He smiled warmly and Sakura blushed, embarrassed by his usual straight-to-the-point manner hidden behind a veil of extreme articulacy.

"Thank you, Julius-san. It's amazing." She said, giving in to his insistence and gazing in wonder at the necklace. She couldn't wait to put it on and show it off to Shaoran. Thinking of him she looked up, worried that perhaps her dearest would feel unwanted if he did not receive a gift but Julius, as always, had read her thoughts and were several steps ahead of her.

"We visited Scotland and visited an old friend of mine who specialises in traditional metal craft and had him make something more suited to Shaoran than jewellery or some other speciality of England." He gave her a rueful smile then looked up as a couple walked towards them. They were blonde haired and blue eyes liked him and that alone drew attention to them. They stopped when they saw him, sizing each other up on sight. Sakura glanced between Julius and the two and waved her hands, worried some kind of a fight was about to break out.

"Ah, Julius-san, this is Himura-san and Elena-chan." She waved at the blonde couple. The boy smiled and tilted his head slightly to Julius and the girl repeated the gesture.

"I thought I could feel a fellow Englishman nearby." Himura grinned and held a hand out for Julius to shake. "I'm Himura Imanda." He introduced himself as Julius shook his hand. He gestured to Elena who stepped forwards. "This is Elena Mithran." Julius glanced from one to the other, his mind churning away.

"If I remember rightly it's Lord Imanda, is it not? I read about your rather mysterious death and that of Mithran-san but it seems they were nothing but rumour, for which I am glad." Himura raised an eyebrow at Julius' articulate speech and responded in a similar manner with a spark of amusement in his eyes.

"It's a rather complicated manner, I'm afraid. I'd enjoy discussing it at great length; but the tale is rather long for the time being and we'd be standing here for hours." He gestured towards the school entrance and they made their way towards the building, the two boys at the front with the girls behind.

"It seems as though you and Mithran-san have quite a tale to regale us with." Julius commented, a subtle revelation that he was able to sense the aura of power around the two. Himura's eyes slid sideways to look at Julius and he chuckled.

"And you us, it would appear. I'm sure there's a great deal of talking we can do; but that's something to be done over a good cup of tea and afternoon cake." Himura stopped suddenly, glancing up at the sky. Sakura, who was walking behind him, bumped into him due to his sudden stop and nearly fell over, not even budging the tall boy. The group all stopped and look to Himura who seemed to be focusing on something.

"What's wrong, Himie?" Elena asked with concern and Himura slowly tore his gaze from the sky and continued on, the group following him.

"We're being watched; and their intent does not feel very amiable."


	5. Chapter 4

**C**hapter 4

The end of school bell rang, making the teacher break off in mid-sentence and looked at her watch as if trying to ascertain a fault in the bells. Finding none she waved her hand at the class, snapping the book she had been dictating notes from closed and carefully putting it down on her desk.

"Alright, that's the end of school so off you go. Travel safely." Her voice was a monotone, suggesting she had droned this message so many times that it was more habit than actual intent. She probably didn't even realised she said it anymore, she just said it.

Sakura picked up her satchel and dropped the sash across her chest. She adjusted it slightly for comfort before twirling and heading out of the classroom. She hummed to herself as she wandered down the school's main corridor in a dream state. She was so zoned out that she didn't notice the pale girl with long black hair waiting by the school entrance.

"Sakura-chan." The girl's familiar voice broke through Sakura's happy reverie and brought her back to reality. She searched for who had spoken her name and saw the pale girl and immediately a wide smile broke across her face as she ran the last few steps to the entrance.

"Tomoyo-chan!" She called out as she came to a stop. "How was the trip? Did you have a good time?" Sakura blurted out the questions and Tomoyo chuckled in her quiet way at Sakura's excitement.

"It was very good, thank you Sakura-chan. I met Julius' family and he took me to lots of the famous places. I've got lots of photos and some videos if you'd like to see them." Tomoyo smiled at Sakura and she didn't need an answer, she already knew from the expression on the girl's face that she wanted to see them, in fact she had known before she had spoken.

"I'd love to! Oh, did you see Eriol-kun?" Sakura asked anxiously. She exchanged letters regularly with the reincarnation of Clow Reed but instead of posting her last letter she had given it to Tomoyo who had promised to see it to their old friend.

"Yes we did. I gave him your later, he was very happy to hear from you again. I have a letter for you that he gave to me but I'm afraid I left it at home." Tomoyo looked troubled at this, as if she had somehow failed Sakura but then she brightened. "Why don't you come over for afternoon tea? I can show you the photos as well."

"Can I?" Sakura leaned forwards, eyes sparkling.

"Of course. My mother would love to see you again. She hopes you might stay over some time when she's not at work so that we can spend time together." Tomoyo's mother had been the sister of Sakura's mother and so adored the girl as she was the offspring of her beloved sister who had died when Sakura was young.

"Your mother's so nice." Sakura then thought of something and looked at Tomoyo anxiously. "Aren't you meeting up with Julius-san today? You usually walk together after school don't you?"

"Julius said that he'll be busy most days after school and at weekends while his companies move to here so I won't see him much after school." Tomoyo looked sad at that thought. Julius' family were a long line of nobles but his father had died, leaving his only son, Julius, with the title and responsibilities of a Lord of the Realm of England.

"Ah, Sakura-chan there you are." The two girls turned to see Elena walking towards them from inside. She spotted Tomoyo and smiled, the two were old friends. "Ah, Tomoyo-chan! I hear you just got back from England?"

"That's right. Julius and I were on holiday there while he took care of some business." Tomoyo's words were innocent but Elena's eyes sparkled in amusement.

"Ah I see. So you've found a boy then, Tomoyo~chan?" Elena winked at Tomoyo who showed a rare blush and nodded.

"Excellent! That makes the three of us! We should have a party or something. I've already met Julius. Seems like a nice chap." Elena rambled on, going into chatterbox mode. "Anyway, seems like Himie's off on business. What're you two up to?" Elena finally finished, returning to matters of import.

"Sakura-chan and I are going to my house to see the photos and videos I took while on holiday." Tomoyo glanced at Sakura who looked troubled at Elena's momentary saddened face.

"Holiday huh?" Elena asked quietly, mostly to herself.

"Why don't you come as well, Elena-chan?" Sakura blurted out, no longer able to stand the sad look on the girl's face. Elena was startled as if she had just woken up.

"Eh? Is that really alright? I wouldn't be intruding would I?" She asked Tomoyo who shook her head and smiled benevolently.

"Of course not. I'd be happy to have you over." Elena brightened and the three girls walked from school chatting away.

* * *

"I see. Thank you." Himura snapped the phone shut and sighed. Things weren't going quite as easily as first planned but that was to be expected, he had actually died in this world so there would be many problems to smooth out before he could start building up a life again.

He was alone in woods that made up most of the city's park so as to give him some privacy. He didn't like making phone calls in public, not that he said anything confidential over the phone; he just didn't like the attention it drew.

The wood around him rustled continuously but he wasn't on edge, he knew the sounds of nature when he heard them. They were flowing noises, nothing sudden and continuous. It was this knowledge that saved his life. Amidst the wheezing off the wind and the brushing sound it made as it passed between the branches and flowed over the leaves he heard a rustling and very light whooshing. It was the sound of someone moving through leaves which brushed against them and then swung back into position.

Himura walked back towards the main path but some instinct told him that the path ahead was also blocked. He stopped when he felt as if he were surrounded and waited until his stalkers revealed themselves, which they did.

At least a dozen demons made their way out of the surrounding foliage from every direction, covering all his possible escape routes. They were armed with swords which were in their hands, they were taking no chances. That was hardly a surprise, with his reputation. One of the demons, stockier and taller than the others, stepped forwards from the ring that now pressed in all around Himura.

"You won't be escaping the jaws of death a second time, Guardian." He hissed before spitting on the ground to show his derision of Himura who just gazed at him with disinterest. That expression, which seemed to the demon as the same gaze one might look upon a bug, snapped the demon's temper and he stepped forwards, roaring and with a mighty swing brought his sword hard down towards Himura.

* * *

Shaoran stepped out of the communal shower and towelled himself down before slipping into his normal school clothes and folding his football kit into a small sports bag. He opened his locker and took out his satchel and slung it over one shoulder and picked his sports bag up before turning to leave the locker room.

A few of his team mates called out to him, complementing him on the match's result and his prowess to which he returned his own observations of their feats on the field. He would have preferred if the match had been open to spectators but for some reason the opposing school had requested there be no observers.

Shaoran arrived at the door and reached out to push it open. He stepped forwards but his foot hit the door which hadn't budged. He frowned and pushed it harder. The bar was pressing down but the door wasn't opening.

"It's locked." One of the boys said and Shaoran turned around to see him. It was one of the boys on the opposing team and he had his head in his hands.

"What do you mean it's locked?" Shaoran demanded and the boy looked up. His face was distraught, the fear plain on his face.

"The door. It's locked from the outside. All of the doors are."

"Don't look so worried. We just find a window." The boy shook his and pointed wordlessly at one of the high windows of the changing rooms. Shaoran put his satchel and sports bag on the bench before climbing up onto it and looking out the window. Men in black kit and holding automatic rifles were standing guard outside.

"It's the slave traders."

* * *

Julius prodded a demon with his staff to see if it stirred. When it didn't he glanced up at Himura who was dusting his hands off before sighing in satisfaction.

"I didn't expect them to fall for it so completely." Julius commented as he picked his way amongst the corpses which began to burst into black flame, the souls trapped inside the bodies finally free.

"As far as they knew Sakura-chan and Shaoran were the only people of power on this world. You weren't present the last time I was here so they didn't count on you being around. I'm rather glad they were ignorant of that fact." Himura grinned and showed the way back to the main path.


	6. Chapter 5

**C**hapter 5

Sakura was mesmerised by the scenes of England popping onto the wall. Tomoyo had connected her laptop to the projector in her mini-cinema and was cycling through photos from her trip. She had been busy with her camera, there were thousands of the photos and each one showed a land so utterly foreign and different to the one Sakura knew. Elena looked wistful as the images of castle ruins, old cottages and long stretches of lush green countryside slid past.

At last the slideshow finished and Sakura blinked as if he wakening from a trance and turned to Tomoyo, her eyes wide and seeming to glow in the dark of the small film room.

"It's such a beautiful place!" She exclaimed in delight and Tomoyo clapped her hands together and nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh yes! It's much better to see it in person though; I don't think I've quite caught the true atmosphere here." She looked a little disappointed but then her face brightened again. "Julius said that he still has a manor house there and we could use it as a holiday home sometime." She beamed at Sakura's awestruck expression.

"We could go to England?" She asked in wonder and Tomoyo bobbed her head.

"Yes, Julius was hoping you and Shaoran-kun would come with us when we went before Christmas." Sakura practically screamed with delight.

An insistent knocking stopped them in mid-conversation.

"Come in." Tomoyo called and a maid opened the door a little so as to poke her head around the corner.

"You have visitors, two boys." Tomoyo asked the maid to show them in and looked to Sakura.

"It must be Himura-san and Shaoran-kun. Julius is working." She said; but despite her surety it was Julius and Himura who entered the room. Elena and Tomoyo hugged their respective boyfriends before they sat down, the maid bringing more tea and cake for the new arrivals.

"You said you'd be working today." Tomoyo said to Julius. She wasn't angry nor accusing, more curious as was her nature. The girl probably lacked the ability to be angry. Julius paused in mid sip of his tea before putting the cup and saucer down on the table in front of him, sighing and glancing at Himura who nodded his assent.

"Himura-san and I decided to rid ourselves of our stalkers. I didn't want to tell you until we'd done it so you wouldn't worry." He smiled at the attempt at chivalry and Tomoyo returned the smile, accepting his silently communicated apology.

"They were demons, as I thought. I suspect they knew I'd appeared here and had hoped to find an easy picking so we set a little ambush for them. They won't come after any of us again; besides I've sent a message to the Guardians and they're moving against the last remnants of the enemy from the war so all shall be well." He had hoped to ease Sakura's worry for she looked concerned and he knew without being told that she was still haunted by the battle he had had to get her involved in, despite her kind nature.

However, the girl didn't seem to be listening but was continuously reaching into her bag, pulling out her mobile phone, flicking it open before sighing, closing it and putting it back into her bag. Each time she repeated this action her concern became more and more apparent.

"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo asked gently after it became unbearable to watch the innocent girl's anxiety grow further without clarification. Sakura was in the middle of checking her phone again and she looked up, startled. She forced a smile and consciously made herself close the phone and put it back in her bag.

"Shaoran said he'd call me after his match was over which should have been more than two hours ago now."

"I wouldn't worry too much; he can take care of himself quite well so I'm positive nothing's happened." Elena assured Sakura as did Tomoyo, trying to cheer the girl up.

Himura saw Julius' brow creased momentarily in a frown, his eyes flashing as his mind began to work on the mystery and produce answers to it. At last Julius glanced back at Himura, both looking out of the corners of their eyes. They made a silent agreement and stood up together, gathering the used cups onto the tea trays.

"We'll just take this to the kitchens." Julius said, picking up one tray. Himura was holding the door open with his foot and held the other tray in his hands.

"I have to repay your hospitality in some way." Himura embellished the excuse and the two boys left, the door swinging slowly shut behind them. Along in the room the girls continued to comfort Sakura who sensed no ulterior meaning to the boys' exit but Elena and Tomoyo shared a knowing glance.

* * *

"Let's hear your theory then." Himura placed the tray down on the kitchen counter as he spoke, opening the industrial size dish washer and placing the crockery inside. He picked up the unlaiden tray and carried it to where several of them were stacked. He quickly wiped the tray down with a wet sponge then dried it with a dishcloth before sliding it on to the top of the pile.

"Do you know about those rescued children in China?" Julius asked, placing the cups and saucers from his tray into the dishwasher. Himura turned around to face the boy and leant against a counter with his arms crossed.

"I read something about it in the newspaper this morning. 2,008 children rescued from trafficking, right?" Julius nodded his head and gestured for Himura to continue with the details. "As I recall a few of the traffickers were caught and several other people were apprehended upon suspicion of being traffickers." Julius held a hand up, showing that Himura had said what was necessary as he closed the dishwasher door and carried his tray over to the sink.

"That's right. I heard from some security force friends in England and here, in Japan, that there's been a rise in trafficking since that crackdown." Julius found the sponge and dipped it in the soapy water in the sink and began to wipe the tray down.

"So you're saying that the traffickers concentrated elsewhere now that China's being more efficient than the other countries?" Himura read between the lines.

"That seems like a safe assumption to make. However, that's not all. There's been a rise but the severity has increased greatly." Julius paused as he let soapy water drain off the edge of the tray before he began to wipe it dry with the dishcloth Himura handed him. "You know of the normal manner in which traffickers find their victims?" He asked.

"They tend to pick up orphans, homeless children. Mostly young people off the streets where people are less likely to notice that they're gone." Himura nodded, he had been to a presentation by Amnesty International once and they had spoken about trafficking, amongst other things.

"Well, that's changed." Julius slid the now clean tray onto the pile before turning to look at Himura. "They're using armed men to kidnap school children. Whole batches of them. Educated, well off children are in high demand in the trafficking business so some groups have decided to become a little more violent in their methods."

"You're suggesting that Shaoran was taken by them?" Himura asked sceptically. Although an icy chill was running up his spine his mind saw no proof to support what Julius was saying.

"I don't know. We can't tell for sure right now. I suggest we call one or two parents of members from the school football team, ask if they're free to talk." Himura nodded

"I have an address book for our year group in my bag; it has landline telephone numbers in it." The two boys left the kitchen and returned to Tomoyo's ensuite living room.

* * *

"Sakura-chan is going to stay here for the night. Her father knows so it's all sorted out; but I think she'd feel a deal better if someone else stayed as well." Tomoyo spoke to the group of three while Sakura was on the phone downstairs to her father.

"I'll stay; it'll be a girl's night." Elena volunteered with a grin and so it was settled. The two boys said their farewells and then left the grounds.

At the gate Julius and Himura stopped for a moment, both of them thinking.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Himura finally said into the silence.

"I'm going to head home, there's some business I have to get done. Here, let me give you my number," Julius scribbled down his mobile phone number on a scrap of paper in his pocket and handed it to Himura, "If you go to Shaoran-kun's house then call me with news. If he's not there I'll start asking around." The two boys shook hands, turned and walked away.

* * *

"Those two are up to something." Elena murmured to Tomoyo as they watched the two boys from an upstairs window.

"But what are they doing?" Tomoyo asked. Elena threw her hands up in the air.

"Beats me. I'll ask Himie about it tomorrow. If it's important he'll probably text me about it later." She turned and walked back down the corridor to Tomoyo's expansive set of private rooms. Sakura was walking down from upstairs, now dressed in pyjamas that Tomoyo's bodyguards had picked up from her house.

"Let's watch a film." Elena suggested when Tomoyo walked in.

"That's a good idea." Tomoyo agreed.

"What film?" Sakura asked, slightly nervous.

"A horror film!" Elena grinned, knowing of Sakura's fear of anything remotely scary.

"Hoeeee, no no! Something else!" Sakura cried and Elena laughed.

"I was kidding. Tomoyo, are the DVDs still in the film room?" She asked but Tomoyo shook her head.

"We upgraded it to Blu-Ray a few weeks ago. The discs are in there but the DVDs are all downstairs in the library."

"Blu-ray, huh? Even better!" Elena exclaimed with an impressed whistle and wandered into the film room. She came out fairly quickly with a disc case in her hands, holding it up for them to see the cover. The other two girls agreed with her choice and they pulled bean bags into the film room to lie on as they watched the film with large cases of popcorn.

Towards the end of the film Elena's phone beeped three times.

"Ah, I guess Himie's texted me. Be back in a mo." Elena danced back into the main room and snatched her phone up from where it was charging and quickly unlocked the keypad and opened the new text message. She read it and frowned.

_Shaoran's not at home, his manservant is worried that he hasn't returned and it seems like his phone is turned off. Julius and I are going to check around town, I'll text you later. Oh; and don't tell Sakura just yet, she'll be shattered. Xx_

Elena locked the keypad and took a deep breath before bounding back into the film room with a fake smile plastered on her face. She jumped onto her bean bag and began to watch the film again.

"Was it Himura-san then?" Tomoyo asked. Elena nodded her head.

"Yeah, he was just saying good night." Elena said. Sakura saddened a little, Shaoran hadn't called or texted her yet. Elena caught the look and rolled over onto Sakura and began to tickle her.

"Don't look so sad you muppet! He's probably just exhausted from that footie match." Elena exclaimed as Sakura giggled and twisted to escape the torture. Elena glanced up once at Tomoyo and silently communicated the real gist of Himura's message and Tomoyo nodded her head to show she had understood but kept her face neutral, the girl was very good at that.

The film finally ended and the girls went to bed on account of having school the next day.

* * *

Himura watched as two trucks pulled out of the school entrance and drove away up the street. They didn't have lights on and their engines were almost silent. He frowned and rolled over the wall he had been hiding behind before dashing across the road to look inside the school. The lights were on and there was nothing out of the ordinary.

He glanced back up the street to see the dark shadows of the trucks vanish as they turned a corner. Making a decision Himura pulled out his phone and dialled Julius' number.

"Call your contacts, we need some information on traffickers in Japan."


	7. Chapter 6

**C**hapter 6

Elena sat opposite the dressing table mirror turning her head from side to side to check her hair. Satisfied she picked her brush up from the table and quickly ran in it through her blonde locks which straightened before springing back to curl a little giving her hair a much sought after bouncy look. Finished Elena chucked the brush over her shoulder to land in her overnight wash bag which was on the chair four of five metres behind her.

Sakura was clumping her hair before securing them with hair bands in her usual style, checking quickly in a different mirror that it looked symmetrical. Sakura caught Elena's thoughtful glance and turned towards the blonde girl.

"What is it?" She asked. Elena didn't say anything, occasionally tilting her head before finally nodding.

"I think you should try having your hair down." She finally said, utterly serious.

"I don't think long hair would suit me though." Sakura replied, all the same glancing in the mirror and imagining herself with longer hair, not like Tomoyo's which reached beyond her waist but more like Elena's which was just longer than shoulder length.

"I don't mean long hair, just having it down rather than how you do it now." Elena explained. Sakura thought about it but couldn't quite get the right image in her head. Tomoyo walked down the stairs from her bedroom with her school bag.

"Breakfast should be ready by now. Shall we go downstairs?" She suggested and the trio wandered downstairs to the large dining room. It was tremendous overkill to use the gigantic table which was only used for grand banquet-like meals so they ate at a much smaller family table.

In the midst of their meal of cereals, toast, bacon and an assortment of fruits and cheeses the butler of the house entered the room.

"There is a gentleman at the door requesting Mithran-dono." The butler informed them. Elena put the toast she had been buttering down on her plate carefully and stood up, pushing her chair back as she did so.

"I won't be long." She said as she left the table to follow the butler who led her to the front door. Himura raised a hand in greeting and the butler excused himself, leaving the two alone. They quickly hugged and Elena noticed Himura tensing slightly at the contact. She pulled back and looked at him critically.

"You've been injured again." She stated and he nodded rather than making weak excuses or lying.

"Two trucks left the school grounds last night, no lights on and the license plates were covered up. I tried to follow them but a car was bringing up the rear checking for any tails like me. I noticed them just in time." He glanced at his shoulder and Elena looked around before gently lifting his aertex shirt and sliding it across so that the dressing on his shoulder was revealed.

"You're lucky it went right through." She said at last, pulling his shirt back into place. "You can't go around so carelessly Himie, you're not as tough as before." Her face was wrought in concern.

"Don't you worry about me, I may be a human without my powers but I'm not helpless." He gave her a wry smile, the self-confident and infinitely reassuring expression that had smitten so many girls, including Elena herself.

"What were you doing at the school anyway?" Elena asked, moving off the topic of his injury. Even as a human Himura healed quickly, it would only be a couple of weeks before he could take the poultice away for good, if he was spared infection.

"After I found out Shaoran was effectively missing I decided to start looking from where we knew he was last, the football match at school. As I arrived those trucks pulled out and they were far too suspicious to just ignore. I rang Julius before I started to follow them. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with them the whole time so I tailed them to edge of town so we knew a vague direction. We're working through a mountain of files to see if we can find some clues."

"That's why you're not in school clothes. That means you two won't be at school today, right?" Elena asked as she mulled over the information. Himura nodded, glancing back inside to make sure no one, Sakura most importantly, was listening in.

"With Shaoran's absence today we won't be able to keep it a secret from Sakura-chan for long. Julius and I worked overnight and we'll continue today through these files. What I want you to do is find out who else was on the football team and see what you can find out from them."

"Okay then. With you two not around Sakura-chan will want to know what's going on, what do we tell her?" Elena thought ahead. Shaoran's absence was a mystery; but with Julius and Himura both absent from school Sakura would know she wasn't being told something.

"Say we're out looking for Shaoran. It'll be obvious that he's gone missing so it'll be plausible for her to know we're looking for him; and it's not exactly a lie. We still don't have any idea what happened but we're working on it." Himura gave Elena a light kiss on the cheek and turned to go. He stopped as he stepped out through the huge doors and turned.

"Oh; and keep an eye out. Lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place; but people most certainly do."

* * *

Shaoran woke to find himself in a room that was poorly maintained. Paint was flaking off the walls and the wallpaper underneath was peeling away to reveal the brick work underneath. The floorboards were scuffed, scratched and dented. The entire place smelt musty and unused.

Pushing himself into a sitting position he felt groggy and light-headed, swaying from side to side before shaking his head to clear his mind and steadying himself with one hand on the floor. He looked around him to see several of his team mates and former opponents lying still unconscious on the floor or leaning against the walls. It looked they had been thrown in here and the bruises on Shaoran's body suggested that they had indeed just been thrown into the room.

He thought back, trying to remember what had happened. He remembered a boy talking about slave traders and then there had been a crash, the sound of glass smashing and then the clank of something metal hitting the floor. Some form of canister had been thrown in through the window and the last thing Shaoran remembered was looking at the canister as a hissing noise came from it.

Another wave of nausea swept over him and he held his head in one hand, riding the wave out before looking around him again to study there location in detail but the inspection yielded nothing more, the room had no windows and the only door in the room was on the other side, no path available to him through the carpet of sleeping boys. Shaoran pushed his back against the wall and closed his eyes. There was nothing he could do for now except build up his strength by resting.

Sakura sat as the teacher called out the register and waited for Shaoran to burst in; but he didn't. There were a lot of empty seats in the room, all boys. In addition to Shaoran, Himura and Julius were absent and four other boys from the class were not in attendance. Sakura was only vaguely acquainted with the boys who were missing, she remembered that they were on the football team and she became more and more worried, terrible scenarios running through her head.

"Kinomoto, are you ill?" The teacher asked, startling Sakura. She looked up to find the entire class had turned around to look at her.

"N-no, I'm fine." She managed to mumble back but Elena stood up and crossed to Sakura's desk.

"I'll take her to the nurse's office, sensei." Elena volunteered and the teacher nodded his approval. Sakura made a feeble protest but Elena overrode it and led the girl gently but firmly by the arm to the nurse's office.

"You're as white as a sheet of paper, Sakura-chan." Elena said as she stopped to knock on the infirmary door.

"I'm worried about Shaoran." Sakura managed to say and Elena sighed, knowing she would have had to tell the poor girl eventually.

"The entire football team is missing, Sakura-chan. Himie and Julius-kun are looking for clues and the police will be in before long. They'll be found, don't you worry." Elena had left out all the details, sticking to the bare minimum so that Sakura was spared the possible reality.

"They were kidnapped?" Sakura cried.

"I don't know but it seems likely." Elena agreed just as the nurse's door swung open. The school nurse on duty took one look at Sakura then motioned for them to come in.

"She needs to rest." Elena said, manoeuvring Sakura over to a bed and tucking her in swiftly.

"No I need to look for Shaoran." Sakura protested and tried to sit up but Elena pushed her back down into bed.

"You're in no condition to be running about, mental or physical so just stay here and rest a little. Tomoyo-chan will come check up on you at break. Stay here until you're feeling better then go to lessons and we'll meet up again after school, alright?" Sakura nodded, giving in to the girl's commanding voice. Elena spoke with the nurse quietly before leaving Sakura to her fears.

* * *

Himura cast an eye over the mountain of papers printed from the fax machine and the multitude of computer screens connected to projectors arrayed around the huge room.

"If there's so much info on these guys why has nothing been done about it?" Himura demanded as he stapled another report together and laid it on top of an ever growing pile.

"My guess is they've paid off some people. Besides, trafficking is something that most governments tend to overlook. They're far more concerned with loftier issues like global warming. It doesn't matter so much to them that kids are taken and sold as slaves right under their noses." Julius answered from the other side of the room where he was working at one of the computers, downloading and viewing attachments to e-mails his contacts had sent him.

"It won't be long before the police are involved you know. Bribery or no they can't just ignore dozens of parents reporting missing persons who are strongly connected." Himura mused as he read through a report before deciding it was completely irrelevant and placing it in a paper recycling box.

"If we can get the leg work done now there'll be less legislation issues to slow them down later." Julius finished off Himura's thought for him. "Here, look at this." Julius called, typing a few more keys. One of the projectors changed its view to that of database showing the passage of ships and other vessels from Japan in the last week.

Himura stood up and weaved his way through the stacks of reports to stand by Julius as he scanned through the notes. A few of the records were missing information but most were highly detailed.

"This one." Julius used a pin-pointer pen to shine a red light on one of the records. Himura's eyes roamed across the record and he frowned, reading it again to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"'Loaded with two trucks lacking license plates with a load weighing approximately a tonne?'" Himura read out, working out the calculations in his head.

"Two trucks with no license plates. You said the ones you saw had blanked out ones. Surely they wouldn't show the plates until out of local jurisdiction?" Julius asked and Himura nodded, reaching the end of his arithmetic.

"And even if the weight of the trucks is only approximate the weight of the cargo is suspicious. Assuming the average weight of a boy on the football team is sixty kilograms and they took all the boys from both teams the weight comes to nine hundred and sixty kilograms. That's pretty darn close to a tonne, especially an approximate tonne." Himura looked at Julius who nodded agreement. The boy picked up a phone and dialled a number.

"We need to know where that ship was headed."


End file.
